Re: Re[2]: dinosaur flatware

[pharrinj@PLU.edu]

On Wed, 10 Jan 1996, Cunningham, Betty wrote:

> 
>      
> 
>      > but one of the biggest challenges I face is convincing people that 
>      >pterosaurs, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and pelycosaurs 
>      >(e.g., _Dimetrodon_) are NOT dinosaurs. 
>      
>      My Significant Other and I were arguing over some educational CD Rom 
>      stuff that I was annoyed with and he thought was ok.  The topic of 
>      discussion was the Microsoft's error of calling a Pteranodon a "flying 
>      dinosaur".
>      
>      After I explained to him JUST how unrelated (and by how many millions 
>      of years) the two were, he changed his mind.  What worked to convice 
>      him was my comparison of iguanas and squirrels, and saying that to 
>      claim a 'tree-climbing iguana' is a 'squirrel' was the same as 
>      claiming a pteranodon was a 'flying dinosaur'.  I think this helped 
>      him grasp something he had never made a point to study, and which was 
>      certainly never covered while I was in elementary school, nor high 
>      school, here in the states (not even in my Geology or Biology 
>      classes).
>      
>      WE on the list know these are all different, but it takes a comparison 
>      to something broadly known and not extinct for most mundane folk to 
>      'get it'
>      
>      -Betty Cunningham
>      

I agree with you in principle, but I think you went a little overboard in 
this particular case.  Unless you happen to be Rupert Wild or Peter 
Wellnhofer, pterosaurs are pretty darn close to being dinosaurs; some 
people (myself and, at least as of 1986, Bob Bakker, included) actually 
do classify them as dinosaurs.  I've set up the dinosauria as follows:

Dinosauria
   Lagosuchia
   Pterosauria
   Eudinosauria
      Phytodinosauria
         Sauropoda
         Phyllodonta (incl. "prosauropods", segnosaurs, ornithischians)
      Sarcodinosauria
         Herrerasauridae
         Theropoda

I don't think there is ANYONE out there, though, who will agree 
completely with this arrangement, though.  (Thomas Holtz and Dinogeorge:  
note that I've gone and changed it again!)

     Nick Pharris
     Pacific Lutheran University
     Tacoma, WA 98447